Made it!

Hello!!

I made it to Taipei!! The flight was very long, but I actually slept for about half of the flight. Today I exchanged some money, drank an iced americano from Starbucks, saw the Taipei American School and ate some great food for lunch. I took many pictures. I will probably post some of them tomorrow or maybe later today. Right now I plan on taking a nap so I will be able to stay up until midnight. The party we will be going to tonight is on top of a hotel and we will be able to see fireworks on the Taipei 101!! Yay!

Zaijian,

JP

Charging up all of my electronics

Tonight will be my last night sleeping in my own bed. Tomorrow I'll be heading out to the Spokane International Airport at about 5pm and flying to Seattle. After a several hour layover, I'll be flying out of Seattle at about 1am. From there I'll have a 12 hour flight straight to Taipei. We'll be arriving at 6am on December 31st. It will be a very long day and we will be going to a New Year's Eve party that evening. Hopefully I'll be so excited and culture shocked that I'll be able to stay up to ring in the new year!

In case anyone needed some inspiration to practice, my supervisor sent this to me several weeks ago. It is a Japanese all girls wind ensemble. Very impressive! Wait until at least 4:50. Great brass soli.

Zaijian!

JP

Where the heck do you find mosquito lotion in December??

I leave in four days and have yet to start packing. Eeeeek!! I've been self conscious of what clothes to bring to try to fit in. Finally I came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what I wear. Having curly hair and blue eyes will make me stick out regardless of what I'm wearing. Everyone going on the trip is white, but we are actually a very diverse group of white people. We have a few of blondes, some brunettes, two red heads, a Greek, a guy who is well over six foot, and me with curly hair. I have a feeling we will be getting a lot of stares when we are all together.

I've been Googling Taipei and I bought a couple of books about Taiwan. One of the books is specifically for some cultural differences between Taiwan and The States. I'm learning that Taipei is very Westernized, but has strong influences from China and Japan. The other book is produced by National Geographic and is about things to do in Taiwan. I'm getting very excited for the following things:

1. Excellent public transportation.
2. National Museum of History
3. Night Markets
4. Taipei Fine Arts Museum
5. National Palace Museum... and more specifically an exhibit about Italian violins.
6. Taroko Gorge

I will also be in Taipei for New Year's Eve. Last year the city blew off fireworks from the famous Taipei 101 building. Although we will be very jet lagged on December 31st, I'm looking forward to see how the people in Taipei will be celebrating New Year's Eve this year!

Zaijian!

JP

Preparation...

As fall semester finally wrapped up, I am starting to prepare for a new journey. I realized that I have been so preoccupied with school work that I have forgotten to tell people where I will be in January. As a Whitworth Master in Teaching (MIT) student, I spend my fall semester part time in the classroom at Lewis & Clark High School and part time at Whitworth taking graduate level classes. In the spring time, I will be in the classroom full time. Both graduate and undergraduate education students spend the month of January (also known as "Jan Term") in a different classroom. The Jan Term placement is supposed to be a time of new experiences and growth. Whitworth students are placed in schools of high minority and/or low economic status. We are also in a different level of school. This means that people student teaching at the high school level are placed at the middle or elementary level and people people student teaching at the elementary level are placed at the middle or high school level. Some people in my program have been placed in Spokane, Wellpinit on the Spokane Indian Reservation, the San Francisco Bay Area and Colorado. I am fortunate enough to be going to Taipei, Taiwan for Jan Term.

There is a group of about 15 Whitworth MITs and Undergrads traveling to Taiwan. We will be student teaching and observing at the Taipei American School. I have been placed in general elementary music in the Lower School. My host teacher, Martin, is a percussionist and was born in Eugene, Oregon. He grew up in California and taught for six years before he started to teach overseas. He has taught in India, Japan, Indonesia and Pakistan and has been in Taipei for six years. He is married and has two daughters. He told me that about 85 to 90 percent of the students are Taiwanese. Although this school is made up of mostly children from Taiwan, the school only speaks English inside the classrooms. The majority of the students also take piano lessons. It sounds like Martin is very big into Orff and uses a lot of voice, percussion (surprise!) and movement in his classes.

I know that January will be a huge growing experience for me. I am interested in teaching

abroad in the near future. I thought that by going to Taipei I would be able to experience the International American Schools and see if it is something I could see myself doing. The group of people going on the trip are a fun bunch and I am excited to be able to bond with them. I will be leaving on December 29th and will arrive back to the USA on January 24th. I will be updating this blog regularly and will be adding some pictures.

Zaijian!

JP

PS- If any of my orchestra students are reading this, you all were wonderful last night!! Congratulations on a great concert.